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Hand hygiene — Foam in and Foam out

Hand hygiene is the first line of defense for infection control. Be sure to clean your hands:

Before entering a patient room/environment

Upon leaving a patient room/environment

When moving from “soiled” to “clean”

Before performing an invasive procedure, even if gloves will be worn

Before and after eating

After using the restroom

Hand hygiene methods include:

Foam in and foam out — Use an alcohol-based hand rub for decontaminating hands during routine interactions, such as entering or leaving a patient’s room.

Wash hands with soap and water — Wash hands with soap and water if they are visibly soiled or if potentially contaminated with blood or body fluids. Also wash hands after 10-15 uses of alcohol-based hand rub to remove emollient buildup.

Standard precautions

Standard precautions are infection prevention practices that apply to all patient care, in any setting where healthcare is delivered. Standard precautions include wearing:

Masks with eye protection, gloves and gowns if risk of splash/spray is indicated

Contact Precautions

Use contact precautions in the care of patients known or suspected to have a serious illness easily transmitted by direct patient contact or by indirect contact with items in the patient’s environment. If it’s messy, icky, or unknown — contact precautions are appropriate. For example, we use contact precautions when a patient has:

Droplet Precautions

Droplet precautions are used when a patient (or any member of the patient’s family) is coughing. Basically, if they’re coughing and you don’t know why, droplet precautions apply. Droplet precautions are important to stop the spread of illnesses such as:

Influenza

Invasive meningococcal disease

B. pertussis

Streptococcal pharyngitis, pneumonia or scarlet fever in infants and young children

Adenovirus

Mumps

Parvovirus B19 (if in aplastic crisis or is immunocompromised with chronic infection)

If you are around a coughing patient:

Wear a surgical mask and eye protection when within three feet of coughing patient

Keep coughing family members in the room and ask them to wear masks when out of the room.